Planning the Engagement Session

I would like to interrupt the big engagement ring reveal with something that’s been on my mind lately—engagement photos!

We are having our engagement photos taken soon, and I am racking my brain for ideas and inspiration.We want to do something fun and different for our e-session, but it’s hard to step away from some of the beautiful ideas that have been trending lately. In case you have been living under a wedding rock, here are some e-session “themes” that keep popping up:

I keep seeing blankets everywhere. Either people are wrapping themselves in blankets, lying on them in a field, or using one to picnic in a garden. The more handmade the blanket, the better. Bonus points for quilts. I think blankets give engagement photos a warm, comfortable, and homey feel, and I can see why they are so popular. We don’t actually own a handmade blanket (or blankets with any character), so I don’t think we will be using this idea in our own engagement photos.

You can’t really go wrong with a beautiful country field as the backdrop for your photos. This is one trend that I absolutely love—especially the ones with the golden evening sunlight. This is definitely a must have for our engagement shoot!

Like the blankets prop, balloons give a certain flavor to engagement photos. When I see photos like the ones above I think of the couple as being fun and playful. Although I think we are a fun, playful couple, I’m not sure that balloons fit our engagement-shoot vision.

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Fields! I worked with wheat and grew up close to a wheat field, so it’s a platonic affair to have pictures on a wheat field, but we didn’t do it, we ended up in gorgeous colonial town with no props and no idea of what we where doing. It was perfect.

Not sure what my favorite trend is…but I’ll tell you which e-shoot bandwagons we jumped on!!

1. Field….except our “field” was on the side of the highway. You’d never know from looking at our pictures! And it was extra fun getting honks from people driving by!

2. Chalkboards…We did the “I said yes” and the “thank you” and also did one where we each wrote something about each other, and then our photographer caught the moment we showed each other. That was so fun, and made some of my favorite shots!

We had blankets and fields for sure, both which I love: I loved balloons too, but we decided to go easy on the props. We did jump on the “holding your wedding date for save the dates” trend and love how that turned out, and we also wore Disney world bride and groom ears for some of our pictures to signify our Disney wedding!!

You guys are both teachers! Can you take some photos in your classrooms? (I don’t know if that would be against the rules…) I think themed engagement photos turn out best when the theme really fits the couple. Maybe you could ask your photographer if they have any ideas for bringing in the teacher theme? Or, I remember that you traveled a lot. Does your fiance travel too? That could be a good theme.

I guess we for right in with the trends…we sat on a horse blanket and took pictures in a cotton field next to my moms farm! We also took pictures in the barn. Those and the cotton field were some of my favorites

I LOVE e-seshes in fields and out in nature. So dreamy Our e-sesh had so so many of the trends you listed above: picnic with a vintage wedding rings quilt, cupcakes, and coca cola in glass bottles, out in a field right at sunset. And a vintage suitcase to boot hahaha

We are doing a winter session – complete with snowmen, four wheelers and coats. We are outdoorsy types and my fiance is a super ice fisherman. I love the feel of winter engagements – more than likely we will be doing the blanket thing. I just need to get my hunting tie blanket put together.

@Miss Blue Whale: You know, I toyed with this idea for a while, but our school is new and ultra modern looking. I wish we could get photos in an old school house with a real chalk board. It’s something I might have to look into!

@bebefly: Haha that is so cute! I don’t know how I feel about a photographer hanging out in our bedroom while we are snuggled in bed though. I would be a little embarrassed (plus I would have to furiously clean everything first…)

I think your engagement pics will stand out just because they’ll be of you and your fiancee! (Although those balloons are adorable!) We thought about using props or shooting in a unique location, but none of it felt like us… it felt forced. So even though we had an awesome heirloom quilt and I scouted photo locations at the park, I’m glad the rain forced us into Plan B. The pictures we got were much more natural and our personalities really shined through.

We SO struggled with this, too… so much pressure! In the end, we went with straight-up boring. The theme was US. No signs, no wacky props. No vintage-y looking sodas. Just Pete and me, a fab dress and nice shirt and a gorgeous sunny day. We’ll adore the photos forever and ever and never look back and think “how silly!”